Matt Cardona made his return to WWE earlier this year to kick off his second stint with the company. His decision to come back to the company marked the end of a successful career in the independent scene. A place he could return to if his "Plan A" doesn't quite work out. This is how he assessed the situation in a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet.
"I feel very fortunate to be in a situation where, no matter what happens, I come out winning. I feel like I'm at the best moment of my career. I'm 40 years old, well, now 41, but I feel better and look better than ever. At 41, I wrestle better than I did when I was 21," he said. If you look at the WWE landscape, the two current champions are my age or even older, right? But, at the same time, there are a lot of young talents coming up strong, so I have to stay alert to keep up with them."
"Hopefully everything goes well and in a couple of years we do another interview, and I can talk about how I won the WWE Championship, right? But if it doesn't happen, I've already found my place outside of WWE and could always go back there, which is a great option as a plan B. Although I don't want a plan B." The plan is to become WWE champion," he stated.
Cardona's first appearance on a main roster show took place during the The Last Time is Now tournament, which would determine John Cena's final opponent before his retirement. At that time, Cardona appeared with his former character, Zack Ryder.
"I thought: 'Okay, so this will be a one-time thing'. I understood Triple H's comment, which was great. Thanks to that, I sold a few signed 8x10 photos, so thank you, Triple H. He said to me: 'We'll keep in touch,' and that's what happened. A few weeks later, I was at WrestleCade, I think right after Thanksgiving. I was having dinner with the guys after a full day of signings and a match, when I received a call: 'We want to sign you.' I thought: 'Okay.' I assumed it would be as Zack Ryder, so I had a bunch of new Zack Ryder merchandise and gear made, and all that. But about a week before my debut, I heard the rumor that it was going to be Matt Cardona. So I thought: 'Damn, I need new Matt Cardona gear!' Still, I'm very proud that they saw more value in Matt Cardona than in Zack Ryder. Because who else has done something like this? Yes, Razor Ramon left and came back as Scott Hall, but that was after going to WCW. I did all this on the independent circuit. No one had done it before: leave for the independents and come back with the character they had built there," he said.
"It was an incredible gift. It was a couple of crazy months because Chelsea (Green) and I were moving to a new house. Plus, there were all the contract negotiations, and not because I wanted more money, none of that. The issue was that I have many projects outside of WWE, and they were very understanding in allowing me to keep my podcast and my action figure line. But there were some legal matters we had to resolve. It wasn't just like saying: 'Here's the contract, sign it'."
ES
US
